CAT/OP/PRT/1/add.1 In the context of the conservation and maintenance of prison establishments, special care is devoted to the call system from the cells (bells). Despite this constant attention, due to the intensive use and sometimes to the scant usage that the prisoners give to this equipment, malfunctions are frequent. B. Discipline 47. Subcommittee recommends that the State party ensure that the disciplinary proceedings in prisons are speedily processed and that measures be put in place to allow prisoners to appeal against the imposition of disciplinary sanctions. Disciplinary cells should only be used when strictly necessary, and time spent in confinement cells should be deducted from the period decided upon for the disciplinary sanction. The SPT also recommends that the State party ensure that the maximum period of placement in solitary confinement shall not exceed 15 consecutive days (even if it involves legislative changes), 21 and that such periods must not be imposed consecutively or in swift succession. 48. It should be highlighted that the conflict level among inmates is relatively low and any conflict is immediately solved by the prison guards. There is no record of serious injuries of inmates (the last and rare situation of death dates back to 2015). The decrease of the number of prisoners has had a reflection on prison overcrowding and thus favoured the decrease of the conflict level. In 2017 the recruitment of 400 new prison guards, as well as the installation of video surveillance systems have also contributed for this decrease. 49. Under the appropriate legal framework, the application of precautionary measures while a disciplinary process is pending is a power exercised whenever it is necessary by the prison establishment directors (e.g. cases of violence among inmates). 50. Placing an aggressive inmate in a separated cell or in a confinement cell as precautionary measure entails a restriction on freedom of movement and on the enjoyment of occupational activities. These decisions, under the Circular No 2/DGRSP/2015, are communicated to the SAI, and placing an inmate in a separated cell for more than 72 hours must be communicated to the Public Prosecutor's Office at the Enforcement of Sanctions Court. Following the communications transmitted to the SAI, several recommendations were addressed to prison establishment directors reminding them that precautionary measures are exceptional in nature and that their application should be the shortest possible even if the law provides for longer time frames. 51. Although the law has not been amended, the duration of disciplinary sanctions, in practice, has been reduced. Although confinement to a cell as disciplinary sanction for more than 15 days is not usual, nevertheless there are still situations where the measure is applied for a longer time and in accordance with the legally defined deadlines. It should also be mentioned that although the law does not establish any differentiated regime for children under 18, confinement to a cell as disciplinary sanction is extremely exceptional. 52. With respect to the Porto prison, the application of disciplinary measures in this prison establishment has been scrupulously carried out in accordance with the legal framework. In no case confinement to a cell as disciplinary sanction has exceeded the legally maximum limit of 21 days duration. Indeed, during 2018 the record for this type of sanction is two punishments of 15 days and the average number of days of this disciplinary sanction was 4,50 days. 53. Lastly, under no circumstances the consecutive execution of these punishments is admissible if it exceeds the legally determined limit, and whenever there are several sanctions of this kind are to be enforced, these sanctions shall be enforced in different periods. 7